stroke volume variation

Stroke Volume Variation (SVV): Predicting Fluid Responsiveness in Critically Ill Patients

I have covered many things on this page, including resuscitation and fluid responsiveness. Fluid responsiveness is a patient being given a certain amount of fluid, or a passive leg raise to assess how that will increase the cardiac output/index or stroke volume. This post will discuss stroke volume variation (SVV) and how it predicts fluid …

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fluid overload

IV Fluid Overload: Don’t Drown your Patients!

The blood pressure is low, give a bolus of fluids. Many times that leads to a "nurse dose" as many of us joke about. But are we causing harm? I keep reiterating that fluid responsiveness is when you achieve an increase in cardiac index/output or an increase in stroke volume due to that fluid or …

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Central Venous Pressure (CVP) in the ICU: Does it predict fluid responsiveness? Nope.

Dinosaurs still roam the earth, I know this. They are slowly and surely retiring, though. I trained in the days where Manny Rivers and the Surviving Sepsis Campaigns pushed for Early-Goal Directed Therapy were king. Hey, there was a reason why it was so successful, EGDT decreased in-hospital mortality from 46.5% to 30.5% in that …

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IV Vitamin C in Sepsis with Thiamine and Hydrocortisone

This article is hot-off-the-press regarding vitamin C, thiamine and hydrocortisone in refractory septic shock. This regimen is known as HAT therapy in some corners of the world. It was actually published today, 5/5/20. It is NOT a randomized control trial but at least they went through the trouble of conducting a propensity matched, before-after, case …

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scvo2 svo2

SvO2 and ScvO2 to Guide Resuscitation in Septic & Cardiogenic Shock

You've heard all these fancy terms, mixed venous blood gas, ScvO2, SvO2, thrown around the ICU all the time. Here, I explain what they are. Regardless of whether you're a nurse, respiratory therapist, medical student, resident, or even a fellow, these terms may sometimes be quite confusing as everyone talks about them like, "duh, you're …

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ABIM Critical Care Board Certification Exam: How I passed my Boards

Back in December 2017, I found out that I had passed my ABIM board certification exam for critical care medicine. I created this video on youtube for those who are interested in learning about the methodologies I pursued to be able to pass this challenging exam. Needless to say, it was the most challenging board …

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ABIM Board Certification Exam: Passing the Internal Medicine Boards

Several years ago, I took and passed my ABIM Board Certification exam for Internal Medicine. I made this video for YouTube when I was a younger whipper snapper and it has proven to have been quite helpful for some. In this video, I go over the different methods which I used to study for and …

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